Looking for feedback from users that currently can't install Juliaup from the Windows Store

Tooling
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If you are a Windows user who currently can’t install Juliaup from the Windows Store, please continue reading and consider helping out :slight_smile:

I have a new setup option for Juliaup on Windows that might work for users where the Windows Store option is currently blocked or broken. If you can, please consider trying that option out (instructions below) and reporting back here in this thread or over at Alternative to Windows Store for Windows · Issue #343 · JuliaLang/juliaup · GitHub.

To try this option, download https://install.julialang.org/Julia.appinstaller and then launch the downloaded file.

Small warning: this new option is quite experimental, and some things don’t work yet. I don’t think any of that is in any way serious, just be prepared for a slightly bumpy experience and don’t try this if you have a deadline coming up. You might also have to uninstall and reinstall at some point during the test phase.

Background

The installer for Juliaup on Windows is based on MSIX. There are broadly speaking three ways to install MSIX packages: 1) directly by downloading and launching the MSIX file, 2) via the Windows Store, 3) via App Installer. 1) is not a great user experience because there is no auto-update, 2) is what we currently primarily use but for some users the Windows Store is blocked and 3) is this new option I’m trying here. App Installer in principle sounds good: one can use more or less the same installer tech that the store uses, but there is no dependency on the store. And it does provide auto-update options. When I looked into this a year ago, though, there were some limitations that made this not an option for us. It seems that those have been lifted in the meantime, so I’m trying again.

The primary benefit of this route is that all setup options on Windows would be quite similar. If this doesn’t work, we’ll need to re-create the same kind of standalone setup that we have on Linux and Mac, but that is more involved on Windows for a variety of reasons and we would lose some very nice features that we get for free from MSIX (for example execution aliases). So, fingers crossed that this app installer idea works.

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Actually, please hold off for a little longer, I just discovered a problem. I’ll update this post once it is fixed, shouldn’t be too long.

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Ok, all ready now, please do try this new thing out and report back if you are on Windows and the Store doesn’t work for you!

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This worked for me on my work computer which has a locked down/useless Windows Store.

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Fehler bei der App-Installation. Fehlermeldung: Das Paket"JuliaComputingInc.Julia_1.7.19.0_neutral_~m018azp39xxy8" kann nicht installiert werden, da bereits ein anderes Paket "JuliaComputingInc.Julia_2022.720.1842.0_neutral~b0ra4bp6jsp6c" mit dem gleichen Namen installiert ist. Entfernen Sie das Paket "JuliaComputingInc.Julia_2022.720.1842.0_neutral~_b0ra4bp6jsp6c" vor der Installation. (0x80073cf3)

Translated: it’s already installed, need to deinstall first.

After deinstalling, installing worked nicely, but:

The latest version of Julia in the release channel is 1.7.3+0.x64. You currently have 1.7.2+0~x64 installed. Run:

juliaup update

to install Julia 1.7.3+0.x64 and update the release channel to that version.

Doing so, no problem…

Seems to be great, no bumpiness at all for me. Well done! :+1: :muscle:

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It worked for me. Many thanks!

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OK, so on my work computer the Windows Store is locked down to only a couple of apps, without any possibility of whitelisting anything, so I couldn’t install juliaup from there. Tried the appinstaller, and it surprisingly worked like a charm! No permission issues, didn’t ask me for admin rights, just installed correctly. I tried downloading a few Julia versions both with Zscaler on or by connecting to our company VPN (the two ways in which my work computer can connect to the internet), and in all cases it worked just fine! I’m not sure how much more testing I’ll be able to do as most of my work is done in a Ubuntu VM rather than on the Windows side of my computer, but so far it looks fine to me. I’ll keep an eye on the auto-updating part…

BTW, in case we need to uninstall and reinstall it later down the line, will we have to remove the Julia versions that were added as well, or even remove the .julia folder before reinstalling? Or will everything still work with the reinstalled app?

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Worked flawlessly for me, thank you :slight_smile: I can’t open Windows store at all at office pc but the app installer worked.

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That is great to hear! I changed how we download things on Windows lately, in particular how we handle proxy configurations and things like that, and this suggests that it all works :slight_smile:

The App Installer version (as well as the Windows Store version) leave everything in the .julia folder alone, so when you reinstall it should just pick up where you left it.

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I tried it but it didn’t work. I got “App Installer failed to install package dependencies. Ask the developer for package.” (Version 1.7.20.0)

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I am here back again, because I had to try again on a Windows machine without access to the Microsoft Store. All went well with above download of Julia.appinstaller.

What’s not so good is, that I have to go to this Discussion to find the download link. Can the install path via Julia.appinstaller be put on GitHub - JuliaLang/juliaup: Julia installer and version multiplexer ? At least, or if already mature enough on the official Download Julia ?

Another one which I am missing:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>juliaup self update
Not yet implemented.

Of course I know it takes time. Just saying it to tell that at least somebody (me) wants to use it as a standard julia install path.

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This method of installing juliaup is still deemed “experimental”, which is why it’s not advertised more yet. It lacks features, doesn’t completely work just yet (self updating didn’t work for me for instance) and isn’t distributed from the right organisation just yet. When we use it, we’re basically just beta testing it. When the bugs are ironed out, it will be advertised explicitly, but not before.
I personally think it’s the right way to go about it. Too much software is distributed before it’s properly tested nowadays, seeing a moderate approach to this is refreshing.

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In my work computer, where the Windows Store is blocked, the suggested manual installation throws error code 0x80070490:

Juliaup_manual_installation_failed

This issue might be due to Virus & threat protection settings, which are managed by the IT administrators:

Virus_real_time_protection
Virus_real_time_protection791×522 16.5 KB

Not a big deal, but just wanted to provide one more data point.

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@rafael.guerra could you run and report back the output for winget --info and winget -v? Thanks!

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As requested:

winget --info

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> winget --info
Windows Package Manager v1.3.2691
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Windows: Windows.Desktop v10.0.19044.2130
System Architecture: X64
Package: Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller v1.18.2691.0

Logs: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\DiagOutputDir

Links

Privacy Statement Microsoft Privacy Statement – Microsoft privacy
License Agreement winget-cli/LICENSE at master · microsoft/winget-cli · GitHub
Third Party Notices winget-cli/NOTICE at master · microsoft/winget-cli · GitHub
Homepage GitHub - microsoft/winget-pkgs: The Microsoft community Windows Package Manager manifest repository
Windows Store Terms https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/storedocs/terms-of-sale

winget -v

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> winget -v
v1.3.2691

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@davidanthoff, I would like to report that as per today juliaup installed successfully in my work computer (where microsoft store access is restricted), using the powershell commands:

> winget install "julia" --source msstore
> juliaup add +1.8.5

Thanks for the fantastic job.

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What if winget is not installed ?

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You can try https://install.julialang.org/Julia.appinstaller. That is yet another way to install it that should rely neither on winget nor on the windows store. But I think winget is actually installed on all Windows 10 and 11 versions now.

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Installed didn’t necessarily mean usable. Restrictions to the Windows Store cascade to Winget itself. If Juliaup can’t be installed from one, it won’t be installable from the other.

In that case the AppInstaller is the only valid alternative as it truly bypasses Windows Store restrictions.

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For the report and perhaps for others to know:

Last time I had to de-install juliaup, which was installed from Microsoft Store. The problem was, no possible way to update or newly install the current version. Only solution was: de-install juliaup Configuration → Apps → Julia → Deinstall.

Afterwards installing the newest version just worked.